HP To Launch Tegra-Powered Android Tablets In 2013

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The world's top PC maker, HP, continues its efforts to redefine its business, and is reportedly prepping to re-enter the tablet market in 2013 with an Android-based, Tegra-powered device.

Truth be told, in the mobile market HP is dramatically behind. Without a consumer tablet or smartphone of its own, the company is not even on the same map as Apple, Samsung, or ASUS. HP has seen some tough failures in the past few years, and now it is paramount for the company to find and adopt a successful mobile strategy. Could Google's Android platform be the answer?

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According to a new report from ReadWrite, HP is gearing up to re-enter the tablet market sometime in 2013, this time with Android-powered tablets packing Nvidia's Tegra 4 system-on-a-chip (SoC). This would be the company's first tablet since 2011 WebOS HP Touchpad was launched, then pulled off the market just six weeks later.

Using Android would mark the last cheaper in the WebOS book. HP inherited WebOS along with the acquisition of Palm back in 2010, when Mark Hurd was still at the helm. Hurd was dethroned as CEO in August of that year, and Leo Apotheker took his place. Apotheker, in turn, was set on making HP a software and services company.

Hurd's successor rapidly discontinued the TouchPad and stirred serious waves when he announced that HP might ditch its consumer PC business. Apotheker was pushed out of the company too, and current CEO Meg Whitman took over the reins. Whitman saw WebOS as a scar for the company, and released it to the open-source community to rid the company of the failing operating system.

Android, however, is the most popular operating system, and enjoys great third-party developer support, even if it's not always tablet-centric. If anything can give HP a shot of launching a successful tablet, it's Android.

On the other hand, HP would be facing fierce competition from heavyweight rivals such as Samsung, ASUS, Lenovo, and other PC OEMs that are trying to get some action in the tablet market. Dell, meanwhile, is one of HP's main competitors in the PC market but took its mind off tablets after trying and failing with its Streak lineup.

According to the new report from ReadWrite, HP may be sneaking its tablet(s) behind closed doors at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week, but the public unveiling would occur sometime afterward. The company is also reportedly considering Android-powered smartphones, but that's more of a long-term plan.